Dryers for clothes are home appliances that supply hot air into a drying drum to remove moisture absorbed into clothes in a state where objects to be dried are put into the rotating drum. Hot air supplied into a drum may be generated by using electrical resistance heat or combustion heat using a gas fuel. Then, the hot air may be supplied into the drying drum by using a blower fan.
Also, dryers for clothes may be classified into forced convection dryers and air vented dryers according to a hot air supply method. That is, the forced convection dryers may be dryers in which hot air supplied into a drying drum is repeatedly heated and cooled while circulating the inside of the dryer, and the air vented dryers may be dryers in which hot air supplied into a drying drum is discharged from the drying drum to the outside.
During the drying of clothes, lint attached to clothes may be separated and thus floated in air discharged from a drying drum, and foreign substances existing in the clothes may drop onto the bottom of the during drum. To remove the lint contained in the air discharged from the drying drum, a lint filter assembly is mounted in a passage through which the air discharged from the drying drum flows.
When the lint is deposited on the lint filter assembly, the lint may interrupt a flow of air to increase a load of the blower fan. As a result, drying performance may be deteriorated, power consumption may increases, and the lint may act as a failure cause of the blower fan. Furthermore, the lint generated during the drying process may be introduced into a fan motor or combustion device that is mounted on a lower portion of the drying drum through a gap between the drying drum and a cabinet to cause fire in the dryer.
To solve this limitation, the foreign substances deposited on the lint filter assembly have to be periodically removed. In case of a detachable lint filter assembly, a user may periodically separate the lint filter assembly to clean the lint filter assembly and then mount the lint filter assembly again.
Various methods for easily removing lint deposited on the lint filter assembly are being attempted. Recently, a lint removing structure of for removing lint by using water in a state where a lint filter assembly is mounted within the dryer is being proposed. For example, a filter cleaning device of a clothes dryer is disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1186159.
In Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1186159 according to the related art, water is sprayed through nozzles disposed at front and rear sides of the lint filter assembly to remove lint deposited on the lint filter assembly. However, the lint filter assembly mounted on the cloths dryer according to the related art may be a mash-shaped filter. Thus, the lint filter assembly may generate a lint deposition lump having a size corresponding to that of the filter. Also, when the water is sprayed through the nozzles, the lint lump separated from the lint filter assembly may have a significantly large size. The water sprayed from the nozzles and the lint lump separated from the lint filter assembly may be introduced into a drain pump and then discharged to the outside of the dryer. However, since a pumping chamber in which an impeller of the drain pump is accommodated has an inlet that has a size significantly less than that of the lint lump separated from the lint filter assembly, the lint lump may block the inlet or an outlet of the pumping chamber to increase a load of the drain pump. Also, the increase of the load of the drain pump may ultimately cause a damage of the drain pump.